Review of Friendship Development across the Life Span

Abstract

A review of research literature indicates that friendship develops from a basis of mutual liking and shared activities in early childhood, to include loyalty and mutual aid in late childhood. Intimate self-disclosure becomes a function of friendship in adolescence with certain aspects of intimacy more typical of females than males. Self-referent elements of friendship such as similarity, power, and acceptance may decrease in importance during adulthood. Friendship in childhood and adolescence has most often been studied in relation to social cognition, whereas friendship in late life has most often been studied in relation to subjective well-being. Further research on individual differences in friendly behavior and longitudinal change in relationships is necessary to develop a life-span theory of friendship.